Positional plagiocephaly is a condition which causes the back and/or sides of an infant's head to become flattened through prolonged pressure from resting on flat surfaces (such as in car seats, cribs, strollers, and playpens). The condition primarily affects newborns because the skull bones are softest immediately after birth and harden over time.
Positional plagiocephaly has become more prevalent in recent years due to the popular “Back To Sleep” campaign (BTS) promoted by pediatricians to minimize Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The BTS campaign instructs caregivers to lay infants to sleep on their backs and on firm mattresses. While BTS has succeeded in reducing the incidence of SIDS, it has exacerbated positional plagiocephaly because more babies are placed on their backs for prolonged periods of time on firm surfaces.
Positional plagiocephaly can be minimized by frequently alternating the baby's resting position so that the baby's head does not rest on any one side for excessive periods of time consecutively, or repeatedly without alternating positions in between. The goal is to even out the pressures on the baby's head in order to maintain roundness and avoid flattening. This recommendation is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). In fact, many hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs), which care for premature newborns, instruct nurses to rotate newborns' heads approximately every three hours.
Despite such knowledge, the problem persists. For example, on Jul. 8, 2013, the Huffington Post published an article titled “Nearly Half Of Babies Now Have ‘Flat Spots’ On Their Heads.” The article cites a Canadian study published in the medical journal Pediatrics which found that “more than 46 percent of 2- to 3-month-old babies may have some form of the condition.”
One of the causes is forgetful caregivers. New parents can be especially distracted and forgetful such that giving instructions alone will not sufficiently ensure the instructions are followed. With busy lives and other children and family members diverting their attention, parents with the best of intentions can still forget to alternate their baby's sleeping position. And even if they do remember to alternate their baby's sleeping positions, parents can still forget which position was chosen previously in order to choose a different position the next time the baby is laid to sleep.
Some have attempted to solve the problem with handwritten journals or logbooks. But these methods also suffer the problem of forgetful caregivers. Since parents have a hard time remembering instructions in the first place, they also have a hard time remembering to manually log their baby's sleeping position each and every time the baby sleeps, which can be six or more times each day. And even if a log book is used sometimes, the process is cumbersome and likely to be disregarded with some regularity.
Others have tried to solve the problem with specially designed soft pillows. These methods are problematic because the AAP suggests that no soft objects, specifically including pillows, should be left in a crib with a sleeping baby.
Though often the problem may be mild, and pediatricians may recommend no intervention because the condition can correct itself with time, parents nevertheless can suffer emotional distress and guilt from knowing that the condition could have been avoided by regularly alternating their baby's sleeping position.
But in other cases, intervention is advised. For example, in a not insignificant number of cases, custom molded helmets are used to reshape the baby's head which imposes additional emotional and financial costs on parents. Even here, however, there are issues. A New York Times article in May, 2014, titled Helmets Do Little to Help Moderate Infant Skull Flattening, Study Finds, revealed that these helmets may not be useful.
Accordingly, is it considered that there is a long felt need in the baby care field for a preventative solution to eliminate or reduce the incidence of positional plagiocephaly in a way which conforms with AAP guidelines.